Reference Material

Disclaimer, Copyright

The U.S.S. Mariner is in no way affiliated with, condoned or given any notice by the Seattle Mariners baseball team, who have their own website. Similarly, we have no association with the ownership group or any businesses related to the Mariners. All article text is written by the authors, all pictures are taken by the authors, who retain copyright to their works. No copying or reproduction of any content here, photographic or otherwise, is authorized. Please email us if you wish to reproduce our work.

Game 50, Mariners at Angels

Felix v Palmer. Betancourt’s at #2 again, Rob Johnson is… playing and despite being so bad you might plausibly DH for him instead of Felix if you were allowed, he’s batting #7 ahead of Chavez and Gutierrez. I don’t get it, but whatever, right? Go team!

Tags:

Comments

Nothing’s wrong with Bedard. It was jak’s spot, but they wanted to see Olsen one (possibly two) more times before RRS comes back, so Jak is back in the pen and Olsen soon will be (at least until the inevitable trading of Bedard and Washburn).

And actually, it’s a shame they have no offense with this rotation. A healthy Felix, Bedard, (new) Washburn, Vargas, and RRS isn’t too shabby at all. Get Kelly back and Cordero later and the bullpen is pretty nice too, especially if Morrow would stop being 2009 Morrow. 😉

Mike Snow on
May 30th, 2009 9:45 pm

Morrow needs to go to Tacoma. While he’s down there he can think about whether he really wants to be a closer.

tgf on
May 30th, 2009 10:05 pm

Why does the pitcher need to take the mound and then check the base?

If time-out has been called after a play, play must be resumed to make an appeal. So to do this, the pitcher steps on the mound and the ump signals that play has resumed when the batter gets into the box. At that point, the pitcher can appeal.

(Basically it’s just to make play resume before appealing.)

juneau_fan on
May 30th, 2009 10:08 pm

Thanks, bilbo. I have nothing wrong with skipping Jak. I think we have the answer to that big drama of yesterday’s game, WHERE WILL RRS FIT IN???

Breadbaker on
May 30th, 2009 10:14 pm

Morrow needs to go to Tacoma. While heâ€™s down there he can think about whether he really wants to be a closer.

I agree with the first sentence. Right now, the second sentence is sort of irrelevant. Aardsma is doing quite well as a closer. We have Fields. Plus, Aardsma proves that you can find guys on the literal scrap heap who can close games if given the chance. Morrow needs to go to Tacoma to prove to management there’s a reason he should be on a major league roster.

justcruisn on
May 30th, 2009 10:58 pm

Agree with Breadbaker. Morrow is better suited to be a starter. He needs to go to the minors to learn to be a pitcher rather than a thrower. He needs an off-speed pitch that he has confidence in. Right now, he’s hurting us, but he has great potential. Let’s give him the development time he never got before being thrust into the major leagues. He’s worth the investment.

I also didn’t like Morrow’s recent comments that seemed to imply that the reason he gave up on being a starter in spring training was just because he didn’t want to go down to Tacoma.

In spring training supposedly it was about his diabetes. But now from his comments, it looks like it was really about him knowing that as the closer, he wouldn’t necessarily need any time in Tacoma (though in truth he did need some ;-)).

If it’s truly not about his diabetes, then even if he was the most dominant relief pitcher in the game right now, I’d still say send him down to Tacoma for the year to work on his secondary pitches and we’ll see him in September. But that’s just me. Potential #1 or #2 starter > potential dominant reliever.

joser on
May 31st, 2009 9:37 am

It’s funny, and more than a little sad, that the team has a former first round draft pick who currently helps the team most when he doesn’t play.

I don’t want to speculate on Morrow’s thinking, nor on the particulars of his medical condition (and familiarity with diabetes in others doesn’t necessarily give any insight into his case). He’s given several different reasons for his decision to make “Closer” his goal, and it’s unclear if he believes each of them at different times or he doesn’t know for sure himself. It’s probably a combination of things, depending on who he talked to last (his agent, his coach, his doctor…) and how he felt that day. It’s pointless for us to speculate without all the information — and ultimately it doesn’t matter anyway.

I agree, his development was screwed up by the priorities of the previous regime, and he needs time in Tacoma — to (re-?)master a second pitch he has confidence in, and to learn to pitch. While he’s down there, he should be encouraged to stretch out into appearances of more than one inning, and to further ponder his career choices. He may discover that going out for more than one, high-intensity inning isn’t as hard as he thinks. And — given that the Mariners have a perfectly adequate closer at the moment, and Morrow thus amounts to the most overqualified (and yet ineffective) setup guy in the team’s history — he may (with some prompting) reconsider a career trajectory that is poised to make him the biggest disappointment of his draft class.

He’s tasted the good life, and as Dave predicted when the previous FO put him on this path, he hasn’t wanted to give it up. But right now he’s not a major league pitcher in any role, so the minors is the only sensible place for him. The sooner the better, but RRS will be coming up soon so there’s going to be some reshuffling of the pen anyway. C’mon Jack, just do it.

rjfrik on
May 31st, 2009 12:25 pm

What a game i went to last night. I honestly can’t believe we won, with this offense, but a win is a win right. I think this staves off the fire sale at least for another couple of weeks.

What I saw.
When Felix is on, boy is he on, he was phenomenal all night, constantly hitting 95-93 MPH on every pitch even his last. It was really nice to see him keep his head in the game and fight thru some tough innings to either SO a guy or induce a inning ending double play.
Russell Branyan is for real. It’s weird and kind of hard to explain but he seemed like one of the only “real” ball players on the team. Made some excellent plays at 1b and was by far our best hitter at the plate approach wise. When I see him, I see a ball player, one who I can’t believe has never been given a chance.
Jose Lopez has no range and it almost cost us the game, in fact it should of cost us the game, until he redeemed himself in the bottom of the ninth. I counted 3 different times in crucial parts of the game where he didn’t get a good jump at all to the hole or he wasn’t quick enough. On the flip side Izturis got to plenty of balls and made some very very nice plays. Man I wish we had 2 defensive guys in the middle of the infield.
Griffey just looks old. It’s kind of sad to be honest with you and it was nice to see him bat in an M’s uniform again, but I have to ask my self, is his farewell tour worth the cost, of lack of a DH? The Designated hitter is supposed to be a hitter, honestly it should be the best hitter on your team or at least one of the best. That is what it’s designed for. Add to that Griffey bats in the 4 hole and you kind of have to shake your head. I ask this, If you were to look at stats could you even tell that we replaced Vidro with Griffey this year? No. And man does that hurt an offense.
Morrow needs to be demoted now! All he does is throw 95 MPH fastballs right down the middle of the plate. He was getting tattooed last night and that is the way he will continue to be until he gets sent down to learn a commanding 2nd and 3rd pitch. He needs to go down to AA, develop some secondary pitches and start wether he likes it or not. This isn’t what’s best for Morrow, it’s what’s best for the team. This guy isn’t a reliever. He is a starter, who fills a reliever role and throws the same pitch over and over. Go down and do what you should of done 3 years ago, develop into a starter for a year or 2 and take your lumps. This is just gross to watch.
Rob Johnson sucks, plane and simple. It’s bad really bad to see him at the plate. Ouch.
I really like our OF, they made some very nice plays tonight, with the bats and with the glove. It was nice to see a couple balls get robbed and some timely hitting from them.
Beltre looks like he might of turned a corner offensively. He really put the bat on the ball tonight and 2 of his hits were right up the middle. A good sign that a hitter is coming around, squaring up to the ball nicely and reading the ball out of the pitchers hand. His heating up is exactly what the M’s need for the win column and the trade front.